Rosie's adventures in knitting (and life)!

December 2008

December 31, 2008

2008 was an awesome year! I got to do a LOT of awesome things and see a lot of awesome places. I won't ever forget all of the trips I've taken this year! I made two trips to Oregon, one trip to Tennessee, and I even got to hang out at the Jersey Shore with Santina! I saw my friend Megan get married and spent time with all of my best friends during Weekend at Beth's and Fakesgiving. I also got to spend a lot of time with my family during holidays and breaks and my Mom even made a visit down here.

I also moved to Pennsylvania this year, and it was a good decision. I like living in the same place as Justin and I'm looking forward to our adventures ahead!

I also did a ton of knitting this year. I finished 34 knitting projects! I had two extra spots in my photo mosaic and included two of my spinning projects. I also went to my first Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival and even got a chance to meet the Yarn Harlot.

Pretty damn good, huh?!

Of course there were times when I've cried and thought everything was terrible, but everything was mostly good! 2008 WAS AWESOME. At the end of 2007, I was really looking forward to this year, and I did make it a good one. I'm even more excited for 2009. I'm going to make next year even better!

December 29, 2008

Before I gave the Zetor Scarf to my Grandma, I let my mom see it. When she saw it she put it on and really seemed to like it a lot. So, I knew I wanted to knit her a lace shawl for Christmas. I really love the way this shawl came out! I think it's the best lace project I've done so far, and I LOVE the color of this yarn.

This is also the first time I used blocking wires to block a lace item. I didn't buy wires specifically for knitting. I went to Home Depot and bought 4 welding rods. They were about $2 each and did the job great!

December 28, 2008

My brother, Timmy, requested this hat from me a while ago. I think he was a little surprised that I actually made it for him for Christmas. His alter ego is called Jeffrey the Wind. Jeffrey is known to produce rap songs and sometimes DJ on weekends in downtown Kunming, China.

He was very specific about how he wanted this hat. He wanted a white hat with the word 'WIND' in light blue letters on the front. He said he wanted a beanie hat and wanted it to fit snug. I was nervous that this finished hat turned out way too small, but I like my hats kind of big. I found a simple men's beanie pattern on Ravelry and then used an alphabet chart to do the lettering.

December 24, 2008

Justin and I exchanged Christmas gifts last Saturday, so I can share one of the gifts I made this year! Justin wears wool socks a lot, but he doesn't like the seam on the toes that a lot of commercial wool socks have. To avoid the uncomfortable seam, he wears some of his socks inside out. I knit him a simple pair of worsted weight socks, which have a grafted toe and no seam!

These socks are knit out of some of my handspun. This is the first time I've knit with any yarn that I have spun. I am really pleased with the way the colors and the stitches turned out in this yarn. It will be interesting to see how well they wear. I have enough yarn left of this color to make a whole other pair of these socks!

December 22, 2008

I'm glad I had a chance to record this episode before I drove to my hometown of Plattsburgh, NY for the holidays. Thank you to those of you who sent me feedback. I love it! Enjoy and have a wonderful holiday!

December 20, 2008

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See was recommended to me by my cousin, Emily. We've read a lot of the same books, so I was confident that I would like this book because she liked it so much. I loved it! I read it so fast. It was a bit if a detour from the types of books I've been reading lately. This one is depressing, and I guess I've been reading more uplifting books. I loved reading about the main characters, Lily & Snow Flower, and their relationship as they grow up and endure the strict traditions of 19th century China such as footbinding and arranged marriage. The story and writing style really captured me and I read this book in less than a week. One of the more interesting things I found about the writing style is that the male characters were never referred to by their names, only the women were named. There was only one instance where you learned the name of one of the men. I thought that really helped to dedicate the story to only the women of this time. I definitely recommend it to anyone who likes reading about women's relationships.

December 17, 2008

Last time I was at my mom's house, we sat down and wrote out all of our family Christmas cookie recipes, because I wanted to make some for myself this year. Last year I didn't get to have any and I was bummed. I made pecan balls, chocolate covered mixed nuts, and coconut nests. I spend most of last Saturday making these. Now, there are cookies everywhere and that's presenting a different kind of problem...but they're SO GOOD!

December 07, 2008

Another NaKniSweMo came and went, and, again, I was a little late. I actually finished the knitting on the very last day of the month, but it took several days and a cross-country plane ride for this sweater to dry after blocking. I LOVE how this sweater turned out. It fits SO WELL and the fabric isn't took thick or warm to wear. I only made a couple of modifications to the pattern as I was knitting. I made the torso three or four inches longer than the pattern called for and I had to make each sleeve several inches longer after the increases. The smaller sizes are definitely designed for short people with short arms. Other than that, the fit is great!

I love the cable panel on the chest even though it is right in the middle of my boobs. It does help make the sweater more form fitting. I messed up the seaming a little bit on the back of one of the shoulder joins, but blocking helped a lot to straigten that out. I really enjoyed knitting this sweater, and I hope I don't wait as long to start my next one!

December 06, 2008

Small Gods by Terry Pratchett is probably my favorite Discworld book that I have read so far. It was really funny as usual, but I really liked some of the themes and ideas. In the Discworld, there are many gods. Some are more powerful than others, and a god's power is directly related to the number of people who believe in them. If a god loses all its believers, then it ceases to exist. This story is about a land in the Discword named Omnia, who worship a god named Om. Omnia is currently ruled by a high priest named Vorbis who is mean and kind of crazy in a bad way. The people of Omnia have been oppressed and forced to live their lives in a certain way that they've stopped believing in Om and only believe in the structure and rules of their society created by the religious organizations there. They are so scared to do something wrong and be punished for it. Om only has one true believer left in the main character Brutha. Because Om is so weak, he takes the form of a tortoise. Om finds Brutha, talks to him, and encourages him to try and fix things. They go on a pretty fun adventure. One of my favorite bits in this book is when they go to another land called Ephebe and try to talk to their leader. I'll quote the book:

All over the world there were rulers with titles like the Exalted, the Supreme, and Lord High Something or Other. Only in one small country was the ruler elected by the people, who could remove him whenever they wanted -- and they called him the Tyrant.

The Ephebians believed that every man should have the vote. (Provided that he wasn't poor, foreign, nor disqualified by reason of being mad, frivolous, or a woman.) Every five years someone was elected to be Tyrant, provided he could prove that he was honest, intelligent, sensible, and trustworthy. Immediately after he was elected, of course, it was obvious to everyone that he was a criminal madman and totally out of touch with the view of the ordinary philosopher in the street looking for a towel. And then five years later they elected another one just like him, and really it was amazing how intelligent people kept on making the same mistakes.

I think I might take a break from Discworld for now, but I will surely come back to it soon.

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs was a really indulgent read for me. It was about a bunch of women with problems AND it was about knitting. I totally couldn't stop reading it. My mom gave me this book after she read it. The quote on the front cover of the book reads "Like Steel Magnolias set in Manhattan," so I knew something really sad was going to happen. And it did. I really did like the book, but I did feel that the death at the end was for no reason other than to have a character die. I really liked all all of the events and drama at the beginning of the book that didn't really have anything to do with the death at the end. It kind of annoys me when authors or movie makers do that, but I am also not immune to their ways. I will go see the movie when it comes out in a couple of years, and I hope I can go with some knitting friends!